This past weekend I celebrated my final homecoming as an A&T student and it didn’t quite measure up to years past.

With the onset of more responsibilities homecoming was not as enjoyable. With the vendors in War Memorial Stadium Parking Lot, plus the fact that the team lost and after parties were ridiculously high priced; I felt robbed of the Homecoming experience I have grown accustomed to.

Don’t get me wrong, A&T puts together a better homecoming week than any other school in the MEAC or the country for that matter; but they have built up expectations in the past that did not quite measure up this year.

I cannot blame my lack of fun purely on the changes A&T has made. Much of my fun is a result of professional responsibilities, and other outside factors.

This year as News Editor of the student newspaper and an intern at a local paper, work and festivities clashed or overlapped. Let me explain.

While I had the chance to attend many of the events free of charge, a perk of the profession, I was not able to take pleasure in the festivities. Instead of revelry I had to keep a clear head and either get quotes, take notes, or snap pictures.

It sucked that during the comedy show I was busy taking crowd reaction snaps rather than reacting to the comedy myself. And while everyone was out enjoying themselves post comedy show, I was behind a desk typing a comedy show review of which you will never get to read because a computer crash erased the story “damn faulty machines!”

Another example is the fashion show of which I had a ticket to and was unable to attend because John Edwards decided to drop by the school that same evening.

Instead of going to the Fashion Show, which I heard Couture was outstanding in, I had to take snaps of the Edwards event. I didn’t really mind because I love political events, but not in the middle of homecoming week.

If you’re thinking “well why didn’t you go to the second show. Well because I was behind a desk again to meet a 10 o’clock deadline.

Congratulations to Latiera and her royal court, you girls looked beautiful, but coronation is not my cup of tea. The one event I had no interest in I had to be there to take pictures. My opinion about coronation at this point would be terrible because I have already stated my biased. I’ll leave it at this; the girls where beautiful the concept was nice I’m just not the type for all the pomp and circumstance.

The night of the step show I took off and rested. I hear it was a good show but I’ve been to the step show before; and what is really to miss, the kappa’s dropping their candy canes?

Game day was the worst day of all.

To the football team: you have to win homecoming, you can loose all the games in the season and we’ll still respect you if you win homecoming, now you have to win the MEAC to earn our love.

• Brett Harrington